Dynamical A and B maps have been employed extensively by Sudarshan and co-workers to investigate open-system evolution of quantum systems. A canonical structure of the A map is introduced here. It is shown that this canonical A map enables us to investigate whether the dynamics is completely positive (CP) or not completely positive (NCP) in an elegant way and, hence, it subsumes the basic results on open-system dynamics. Identifying memory effects in open-system evolution is gaining increasing importance recently and, here, a criterion of non-Markovianity, based on the relative entropy of the dynamical state is proposed. The relative entropy difference of the dynamical system serves as a complementary characterization---though not related directly---to the fidelity difference criterion proposed recently. Three typical examples of open-system evolution of a qubit, prepared initially in a correlated state with another qubit (environment), and evolving jointly under a specific unitary dynamics---which corresponds to a NCP dynamical map---are investigated by employing both the relative entropy difference and fidelity difference tests of non-Markovianity. The two-qubit initial states are chosen to be (i) a pure entangled state, (ii) the Werner state, which exemplifies both entangled and separable states of qubits, depending on a real parameter, and (iii) a separable mixed state. Both the relative entropy and fidelity criteria offer a nice display of how non-Markovianity manifests itself in all three examples.
In this paper, we numerically study the non-Abelian statistics of the zero-energy Majorana fermions at the end of Majorana chain and show its application to quantum computing by mapping it to a spin model with special symmetry. In particular, by using transverse-field Ising model with Z2 symmetry, we verify the nontrivial non-Abelian statistics of Majorana fermions. Numerical evidence and comparison in both Majorana representation and spin representation are presented. The degenerate ground states of a symmetry protected spin chain therefore provide a promising platform for topological quantum computation.